Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an infection provoked by a group of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that reside on the exterior of people’s skin and inside of the nose. This bacterium is typically innocuous; however, it can cause infections in various parts of the body because is resistant to a number of commonly used antibiotics which makes the infection extremely difficult to cure. MRSA has several symptoms including infectious skin, but sometimes it can cause serious infections inside of the body. To diagnose MRSA most commonly a lab test is done to the infected area of the skin, but depending on the patients symptoms a urine, sputum, or blood test can be done. Accordingly, MRSA is treatable with exiguous antibiotics that are still effective, depending on the severity of the infection and its location in the body.
Continually, Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacterium that lives in one’s body; nonetheless, it can be problematic if it gets inside of the body because it can cause an infection. MRSA can be spread from one person to another by skin to skin con...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), MRSA is easily transmitted from person to person or from touching materials or surfaces that had previous contact with the infection. Using the implementation of infection control along with patient education will help in the decrease of the spread and help in the prevention in MRSA as well as get patients involved in their own care. The purpose of this paper is to present the problem of MRSA as well as include the rationale and history, review the proposed solution, integrate an implementation plan, summarize the literature review, establish an implementation plan, use a nursing theory to support the implementation plan, use a change theory to support the implementation plan, discuss how the project will be evaluated, and create a dissemination
Tuberculosis or TB is an airborn infection caused by inhaled droplets that contain mycobacterium tuberculosis. When infected, the body will initiate a cell-mediated hypersensitivity response which leads to formation of lesion or cavity and positive reaction to tuberculin skin test (Kaufman, 2011). People who have been infected with mycobacteria will have a positive skin test, but only ones who have active TB will show signs and symtoms. Basic signs and symptoms include low grade fever, cough with hemoptysis, and tachypnea. They may also show pleuristic chest pain, dyspnea, progressive weight loss, fatigue and malaise (Porth, 2011).
What is Strep Throat you ask? Strep throat is a sore throat with fever caused by streptococcal infection. Sore throats are most commonly caused by viral infections or other irritants such as smoke, allergies, dry air, or a throat injury, and not by a strep infection. A strep infection causes the throat (pharynx) and the tonsils or adenoids to become irritated, inflamed, and painful. Strep throat is caused by streptococcal (strep) bacteria, most often by group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus (GABS). Other types of strep that can sometimes infect the throat are groups C and G strep bacteria. How the strep infection is spread? Strep throat can be passed from person to person. When a person infected with strep throat breathes, coughs, or sneezes, tiny droplets containing the strep bacteria are released into the air and are breathed in by other people.
Life History and Characteristics: Staphylococcus aureus is a gram positive bacterium that is usually found in the nasal passages and on the skin of 15 to 40% of healthy humans, but can also survive in a wide variety of locations in the body. This bacterium is spread from person to person or to fomite by direct contact. Colonies of S. aureus appear in pairs, chains, or clusters. S. aureus is not an organism that is contained to one region of the world and is a universal health concern, specifically in the food handling industries.
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a respiratory tract infection characterized by a violent cough. The violent cough incudes a series of severe uncontrollable coughing, hacking, or whooping. (1) Pertussis is a very contagious disease caused by bacteria named Bordetella pertussis, which is transmitted through fluids from sneezing or coughing around a person’s breathing space. The bacteria release toxins, damage cilia, and cause airways to swell.
As you exit the bus, another passenger next to you starts to cough, and then you hold the handrail as you exit the bus. Since you’re late getting home, you take a shortcut through a field to get home quicker. These three simple acts just exposed you to bacteria, viruses, and insects that could cause illness or even death. Infectious diseases, also known as communicable disease, are spread by germs. Germs are living things that are found in the air, in the soil, and in water. You can be exposed to germs in many ways, including touching, eating, drinking or breathing something that contains a germ. Animal and insect bites can also spread germs.1
Patient education is of paramount importance if MRSA is to be reduced to its lowest minimum. According to Noble 2009, patient’s education stands a critical component of managing MRSA therefore; nurses are expected to be prompt in educating patients on specific measures in limiting and reducing the spread of MRSA by person to person contact. (Noble, 2009) The specific measures includes definition of MRSA, mode of transmission, the damage it can do to the body, specific treatments available and the process of treatment. This is to help the patient take part in the care. Noble 2009 explains that during care giving nurses and all other healthcare provider involve in giving care to a patient should communicate to patient all the precaution that will prevent the transmission of MRSA, and also giving the scientific rationale for the use of any precaution that is been used in the cause of care giving. (Noble, 2009.)
ANTIBIOTICS :- Antibiotics are medicines that fight bacteria. Antibiotics can save lives, if used properly. Antibiotics either kill bacteria or keep them from multiplying. Antibiotics do not fight virus infections. For example: Cold Flu ANTIBIOTICS: Most coughs Sore throats (Exception: strep throats).
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
Biological evolution is defined as any genetic change in a population that is inherited over several, successive generations. (R.Bailey, 2014) The changes accumulate and over time a new species is created. One of the basic mechanisms of evolution is Natural Selection. Natural Selection is random genetic variation occurring within an organisms DNA and the beneficial mutations being preserved because they aid survival. (C.Darwin, 1859) Two notable scientists associated with the theory of evolution include Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
...ed in the case of the antibiotic known as vancomycin. In order to treat the vicious bacterium, the drug vancomycin was introduced with hope to provide a therapy for the infection. However, eventually a resistant gene toward this drug emerged and began to spread throughout hospitals. “These strains, known as vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA), we progeny of MRSA that had acquired a set of five genes that travel together as a “cassette” and confer vancomycin” (Walsh & Fishbach, 2009). Unfortunately, the enzyme located in the resistant gene of the bacteria allows the target to change, which does not permit the binding of vancomycin. Obviously MRSA and VRSA pose a huge dilemma as both bacteria can be spread fairly easily and the resistant gene is so potent that even drugs that would be considered “last resort” develop troubles when it comes to trying to treat them.
Tuberculosis is an air-borne disease, hence, it can be passed from an infected person to a healthy individual through coughing, sneezing and other salivary secretions. Tuberculosis is caused by the transfer of Mycobacteriun Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis) also known as Tubercle Bacillus, a small particle of 1-5 microns in diameter, due to the small size, when an infected person sneezes or coughs, about 3,000 particles are expelled. M. Tuberculosis responsible for tuberculosis is able to stay in the air for a long period of time (about 6hoursAnother way of acquiring Tuberculosis is by drinking unpasteurized milk, milk straight from cow, although this is not a common mode of transmission, it can be found in rural areas. Ingestion of contaminated cow milk transmits Mycobacterium Bovis, the animal form which is still potent enough to cause tuberculosis in humans. ). Tuberculosis transmission is affected by exposure, socioeconomic status of person, proximity, immune status of uninfected individual (%&&%&? CDC).
Infection control is very important in the health care profession. Health care professionals, who do not practice proper infection control, allow themselves to become susceptible to a number of infections. Among the most dreaded of these infections are: hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Another infection which has more recently increased in prevalence is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are all treated differently. Each infection has its own symptoms, classifications, and incubation periods. These infections are transmitted in very similar fashions, but they do not all target the same population.
MRSA is a major source of healthcare associated diseases, increased hospital mortality, and leading surgical site infection (Jennings, Bennett, Fisher, & Cook, 2014, p. 83). With the implementation of active surveillance screening and contact isolations program, an overall decrease in hospital associated MRSA infections has been observed (Jennings, Bennett, Fisher, & Cook, 2014, p. 83). The author of this paper will identify a theory that can be used to support the proposed intervention i.e., reduce the transmission of MRSA by active screening in patients at high-risk for MRSA on admission. This paper will then describe the selected theory, and rational for the selection, and how this theory will support the proposed solution and how to incorporate this theory in this project.
Infection control, a term that describes procedures taken to reduce the spread of infection. The dental office is a place where many people are treated including patients with infectious disease such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and many other highly contagious diseases. It is imperative that in any dental office setting the prevention of the spreading microorganisms from patient to patient, patient to staff, or staff to patient is done in high precaution. Infection control has two main objectives; to protect the patients from harmful pathogens as well as dental team members. Infections can cause or add pain, deteriorate a persons health, and in worst cases even result in death. In order to understand the infection control in a dental facility, you must understand the standard precautions required by organizations that regulate or recommend infection control, the kinds of preventive measures taken, as well as when these measures should be taken.